Someday
by ShellSueD
Summary: No one ever expected it to happen, least of all, Stephanie.


_JE owns all the rights to anything familiar. I borrowed two scenarios and one line from the book Finger Lickin' Fifteen. No infringement intended._

_**Very minor smut warning**_

_This is for __**LilyGhost**__ who writes the best and sweetest Babe HEAs out there. Her stories were undoubtedly where I got the inspiration for this very short tale – I'm not quite on the same level as she is as far as romance goes, but this is probably as romantic as I'll ever get. I hope you enjoy! _

* * *

Ranger once told me his life didn't lend itself to relationships but that maybe, _someday_, things would be different.

I'll admit, at the time, I really, _really_ wanted things to be different but deep down I never held out hope for any kind of future with him. We were friends, _best friends_, if you want to know the truth and yeah, we had this unbelievable chemistry, and yeah we loved each other, each in our own way, but I didn't think there would ever come a time when more would be an option.

I didn't believe someday would ever become _the_ day. Boy, had I been wrong.

It didn't happen right away and neither of us was really aware that it was going on until we were in pretty deep. My Mother, _of all people_, was actually the one to inadvertently point it out.

It was a Thursday night, about an hour before dinner was set to hit her table, and she called me to confirm I would be there right at six _'any later and the roasted chicken will be dried out'_, and then she asked me casually if I'd be bringing my boyfriend again.

That was the first time she'd referred to him as such. Usually it was Mr. Manoso, or if he got really insistent, Carlos. She had never once used his preference of Ranger, _'I can't call him that, Stephanie, it's too strange'_, and she had never, under any circumstances, ever called him my boyfriend.

But the weird part? I didn't even notice, not until later. I simply said yes that he would be coming with me and we'd be there right at six.

I remembered what she'd said in the car, when Ranger was driving me home. We were idling at a red light and he was using the opportunity to explore the easy access of the new outfit I'd bought that morning. He'd driven the Turbo 911, and I hadn't been careful about pulling the skirt down my legs when I sank into the low riding bucket seat, so Ranger's ever wandering fingers were taking full advantage of the situation. My eyes were closed and my head was tilted back, and I was thoroughly enjoying every soft caress as they made their way farther and farther up my thighs. Ranger made a low, erotic sound when he discovered I'd gone commando. His knuckles lightly fanned my pubic hair and when he slipped one finger inside, my eyes flew open, I whipped my head around and then blurted, "Are we a couple?"

The light turned green but he stayed stationary, penetrating my eyes with a hot, hard stare while continuing to stroke me. Just as I tumbled into a powerful release, Ranger said, "Yes," with a fierce growl and then crashed his mouth to mine. He kissed me for several exquisite moments, not caring about the angry people stuck behind us, laying on their horns in protest.

That's how we got together, well, how we _acknowledged_ what had already been going on between us for a very long time. We celebrated the occasion when we got back to my apartment...okay, maybe the party started inside the elevator of my building but it finished in my bed, and not until well into the next day.

How we ended up living together happened in a very similar manner. It wasn't discussed ahead of time; neither one of us had ever mentioned it, not even once.

I'd been working at Rangeman part-time for just a few months when Ranger assigned me to a special case. There had been a series of security breaches at several high-end clients' homes and circumstances of the break-ins pointed to it being an inside job. I was tasked with uncovering the culprit among us and one night, very late, I'd figured out it wasn't an in-house problem. The criminals in question had been posing as Rangeman employees, showing up at the residences saying they were there to do maintenance and then setting up cameras to catch pass codes as they were entered into the keypads. It was an effective way to circumvent Ranger's alarm systems and I was so excited about my discovery, I forgot about the late hour and charged up to his apartment.

I let myself in and found him in bed. I jumped on top of him, straddling his waist and started babbling about how I'd solved the mystery. I was telling him how happy I was he wouldn't have to murder one of the Merry Men for being a traitor when Ranger's hand found its way to my breast. His thumb brushed across my nipple and heat swirled and spiraled out through all of my nerve endings, effectively silencing my energetic rant. He pulled me down to meet his lips and the kiss he ground upon my mouth was ruthless in its intensity. He removed the elastic band securing my ponytail, and then tunneled his fingers through my hair, tugging me closer to the smooth, muscled expanse of his bare chest. He wrapped me in his arms and after stripping me as naked as he was, made love to me in the pink glow of the slowly rising sun.

Later, when I attempted to crawl out of bed, telling him I had to go home to feed Rex and get some clean clothes, he reached for my hand, yanking me back to his side and said, "Stay." I did, and a week later, a few of his men packed up my stuff and I moved into the penthouse.

It wasn't a surprise when we got engaged in a completely spontaneous and far from any kind of traditionally expected way. I was after a skip, a particularly dangerous one, wanted for armed robbery and assault with a deadly weapon. Ranger assigned Lester to assist me with the capture but at the last minute, his schedule opened up and Ranger went with me himself. Things always tended to go smoothly when he was at my side. Probably because he can make even the most hardened of criminals wet their pants with merely a look, but mostly because Ranger was really good. At _everything_.

But that night hadn't gone exactly according to his carefully crafted plan. The skipped turned out to be a really fast runner and Ranger was temporarily sidelined by a rusted out fire escape. I ended up accidentally cornering our prey in the storeroom of a pizza place and after a well-placed knee to his nuts, plowing him with a five-pound bag of flour and conking him on the head with a can of olive oil, Ranger finally caught up to us.

He grabbed the can out of my hand before I could take another swing and cuffed the man before I even wiped the flour out of my eyes. When I could see again I found Ranger staring at me. "Any special reason you grabbed the flour?" He wanted to know. I was covered head to toe in the white powder and could only imagine what a sight it made.

"I don't know, I wasn't really thinking," I said with a shrug and it knocked some flour off the shoulders of my black Rangeman shirt.

Ranger smiled at me, one of his rare full-on smiles that shone all the way to his eyes, and then he said, "Marry me, Babe."

I glanced down at my ring and twisted it around twice. It had arrived months after he asked me. He slipped it on one day after we had lunch at Pino's. He'd opened the passenger door of the Cayenne for me and as I was sliding into the seat, he grabbed my hand and then distracted me with his wicked, wicked tongue. When he finally broke the kiss, I was panting with need and there was a beautiful, shiny diamond on my finger.

I smiled at the memory and twisted the platinum band one more time before lifting my head.

We've been engaged for close to two years now and we haven't ever talked about when we want to get married. I know we will at some point, and it will happen just like all the other significant moments in our life. Organically, spontaneously, and perfectly.

"What were you thinking about, Steph?" Ranger asked from beside me. I turned and took in his profile as he maneuvered the black SUV through the streets of Las Vegas. We'd been in sin city for nearly six months, setting up the new branch of Rangeman Enterprises and this was our last week in the sprawling desert city. I'd had a great time here with him and a few of the guys who we'd brought along with us, but I was ready to go home.

"Not much," I said. "Just about how happy I am. _You_ make me happy," I amended and Ranger took his eyes off the road for a brief moment, long enough to pierce me right to my soul with one quick look before taking my hand and bringing it to his lips.

"Me too, Babe," he replied softly, kissing my knuckles, and I leaned my head back against the seat with a contented sigh.

"_Jesus_, you two are nauseating," Lester groaned from the back seat.

"It's more than that," Bobby chimed in. "It's downright sickening. You better pull over so I can hurl outside of the car."

"I don't remember asking for either of your opinions," Ranger replied quietly, but his tone held that unmistakable authority and because they aren't stupid, Bobby and Lester offered no other insights into our relationship. I twisted around in my seat and gave my two favorite Merry Men a flashy grin.

Lester grinned back and wiggled his eyebrows and Bobby gave me a flirty wink.

"Hey, is that the new courthouse?" Lester asked when we turned a corner, heading back to Rangeman.

"Yes, it is," Ranger confirmed slowly and the next thing I knew we were double parked in front of the entrance and Ranger's fingers were laced with mine, tugging me behind him as he headed for the door.

Fifteen minutes later, marriage license in hand, we got back in the car and Ranger pointed the vehicle in the opposite direction of the Rangeman building.

"What's happening right now?" Lester questioned. "Is that...did you just…"

"That's exactly what they did," Bobby interrupted and snatched the paper from my grip. The two of them inspected the license with their heads bent together and then they met Ranger's gaze in the rear view mirror.

_"Holy shit,"_ Lester breathed. "Right now?"

Ranger cut his eyes to me and I nodded. Why not right now? This was Las Vegas; there were plenty of options to choose from.

"Hot damn!" Bobby exclaimed. "We get to be there, right? You're not going to drop us off first?"

Ranger chose not to answer and drove like he already had a destination in mind. After a short trip, we arrived at The Little Chapel of Flowers on Las Vegas Boulevard. It was a couple of miles north of the busy strip and one of the classier venues available in the city. They had a chapel outside called the glass garden and that's where we ended up having the ceremony. It was a Tuesday afternoon and the middle of summer and we were dressed in head to toe Rangeman black but I didn't care. I was going to marry Ranger right then and there and nothing else mattered.

Lester added his signature to the paperwork as our witness and Bobby passed me to Ranger's arms after the short walk down the aisle. We were derailed briefly when I didn't have a ring for Ranger's finger but the minister happily handed over his own. It was too small and only got to his first knuckle but it was the symbolism that counted. I would get him a real ring later.

We repeated the minister's traditional vows and added a few of our own, promising to always put each other first, to make each other laugh, to be respectful and honest and above all, to love each other with our whole hearts for our whole lives.

I was teary by the end, but then Ranger was kissing me before the minister even said it was time and Bobby actually had to clear his throat more than once to get us to stop.

As I knew it would be, our wedding was completely unplanned, simple and absolutely perfect. The package we'd had to buy included free limousine service to any destination of our choosing within the city so we decided to take it, sending Lester and Bobby back in the SUV.

"Come here," Ranger said his voice thick with want as soon as we were ensconced inside the limo. I let him pull me into his lap and he leaned back against the buttery, black leather seats.

"Where are we going?" I asked as his nimble fingers found their way up and under my shirt.

"Does it matter?" he came back with before pulling the shirt off my body and closing in on an already pebbled nipple with his mouth. He sucked through the lace cups covering my breasts and I arched into his touch.

"No," I replied and hissed a swift intake of air as he lightly bit down before using one hand to unhook my bra and the other to rip it from my body. He tossed it to the floor with my shirt and he was suddenly wearing way too much clothing. I yanked his shirt up and pulled it off, adding it to the pile.

He buried his face in my neck while his hands worked on removing my pants and when we were both blessedly naked I straddled his legs and sank onto him in one long, glide.

We consummated our marriage, _the first time_, quickly but with an explosive passion I'd yet to really reconcile where Ranger was concerned. We'd been together for a very long time but each time we came together, every time he touched me, it ignited a searing fire under my skin that somehow I knew would never be extinguished.

With his fingers still digging deep impressions in the flesh of my hips, he held me tightly to him and when we could finally breathe without effort, he said, "I knew someday we'd end up here."

I brushed a kiss across his lips before raising an eyebrow. "Naked and sweaty in the back of a limo?"

He graced me with a quick bark of laughter before lifting my hand to his mouth. "Of course, but I was referring to this." He kissed my wedding ring and then my mouth. "I knew the first time we met that someday I would be married to you."

It took me a long time to find my voice, the sudden tears and emotion clogging my throat. _I_ hadn't known, I hadn't ever dared to _hope_ we would end up here and sometimes I was still shocked that we were, but I couldn't be happier that the _someday_ he'd mentioned all that time ago turned out to be the truth.

"Really?" I questioned as his lips traveled across my collar bone. He alternated tiny nips of his teeth with soothing strokes of his tongue and by the time they once again reached my mouth I was hoping our limo ride would never end.

"Always, Babe," he said. "It's always been you."


End file.
